Information processing in depression and anxiety

Key Points

• This study aims to compare memory scanning performance in unipolar and bipolar depression patients and those with anxiety disorders.
• Compared memory scanning performance using four versions of Sternberg's memory comparison task.
• Participants included unipolar and bipolar depressives, patients with anxiety states, and control subjects.
• Evaluated efficiency of search strategies and processing stages in tasks.
• Unipolar depressives showed impaired memory scanning in 3 tasks compared to controls (p<0.05).
• Unipolar depressives were slower in non-scanning processing stages compared to both anxiety patients and controls (p<0.01).
• Unipolar depressives used less efficient search strategies and relied more on controlled processing than automatic detection.

Abstract